About the Author ---------------- Created by Edgar Pierre Jacobs after WWII, ProfessorPhilip Mortimer, nuclearphysicist, and Captain Francis Blake, dashing head of MI5, are legendary heroes of the 9th art. The author, a closefriend of Herge, took part in the visual realisation of Tintin in theCongo, Tintin in America, The Blue Lotus, King Ottokar's Sceptre, The Seven Crystal Balls, and Prisonersof the Sun.